


Sketch of you, Sketch of us

by HogwartsToAlexandria



Series: Marie Ships it All Shorts 2019 [23]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Artist Steve Rogers, Blow Jobs, Depression, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, MCU Christmas Exchange, Married Couple, Pet Names, Preschool Teacher Thor, Recovering Alcoholic Thor, Supportive Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:33:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21646066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HogwartsToAlexandria/pseuds/HogwartsToAlexandria
Summary: One step at a time, Thor finds a grasp on life again, Steve's hand in his the whole way there, always.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Thor
Series: Marie Ships it All Shorts 2019 [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1649578
Comments: 9
Kudos: 59
Collections: MCU Christmas Exchange





	Sketch of you, Sketch of us

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DarthBloodOrange (DepressingGreenie)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DepressingGreenie/gifts).



> Hey! Here is my first attempt at writing Thundershield for my giftee of the MCU Christmas Exchange DarthBloodOrange! I hope you'll enjoy it, I have *feelings* about them now so thank you for that. 
> 
> Thank you to Betheflame for being her awesome self and beta-ing this. Thank you to our dear mod Ruquas as well, for putting all of this together!

"2350 Batchelder Street, near Marine Park, please,"

The nights were already getting longer, eating away at the mornings and evenings, slow but steady. Coming home now, Thor found himself in the half-light of a day that wanted out. The streets melt together in one continuous flow of brick walls and glass windows, of varyingly clean pavements and passers-by. The colors of the traffic and street lights mixed together behind his eyelids as he closed his eyes, not tired per se but feeling like this day was one he'd need some time to recover from. 

He slouched a bit more in the leather seat of the cab and prepared to fetch out his phone from his coat pocket just as the driver looked around briefly. They were nearly there, Thor knew it down to his bones, the proximity with home something he always felt deeply for some reason.

"Nice braids, man," the driver said above the chatter of his Italian news radio. 

Thor smiled at him in the rearview mirror. 

"Thanks." 

And that was it for small talk. Which was just as well, Thor could appreciate the silence of quiet cab drivers. There were all but too rare in this manic city. 

He loved New York, he really did, but sometimes, the peace and quiet of his Green Mountains of Vermont came back to the forefront of his mind and he just wanted to run and there and hide, rest. He'd been right though, home was right there around the corner. Not even a minute later, the driver pulled up at the garage entry of Thor's building. The mundane exchange of the travel fees took all but a few seconds, a bill passing from one hand to another and Thor was out of the car, his phone still in his pocket and his hands busy tightening the lapels of his gray wool-blend coat around him. 

He fished his keys with hands that buzzed with the need to be home, a need that somehow got bigger and more insistent the closest he got to making it there, to Steve. He pushed the front door open and started walking up the stairs to their apartment on the fifth floor - it was good exercise. It was also another moment that he used to collect himself, his hands balled in his coat pockets, one around the keys he would need again to get in and the other around a circular coin that could have been anything, but that Thor could picture with his eyes closed, whose design he knew down to the last ridge engraved letter. The big ‘six’ in the middle of the dark blue of his six-month sobriety chip. 

He walked, step after step and turned the chip between his thumb and forefinger in his pocket. Today had been a huge day - six months ago, it would have qualified for a  _ too much _ day. Thor allowed himself to smile when he got to their landing, the familiar sight of their heavy front door already making his heart feel both fuller and lighter somehow.

The door creaked as he pushed it open, an instant note-to-self to grease it when he'd come home from school tomorrow. 

_ School _ . It still baffled him that he'd made it back there, that he'd found a new job, a new place that accepted him after the fiasco that he'd been for the last year or so. But Thor pushed the thought away as much as he could, trying to focus on the young faces of his new students rather than the memory of the emptiness of his life when he'd hit rock bottom not that long ago. 

With a last swipe of his thumb over the metal edge of his chip, Thor shed his coat and toed off his boots. The one thing that always got him when he entered their place was the smell of cinnamon that always seemed to linger, both from Steve's sweet aftershave and the baking he couldn't seem to stop indulging in. Thor took a deep breath, letting the warm scent and feel of home wash over him. He could already feel his shoulders letting go of a bit of the tension he'd accumulated through the day - there was only so much his meetings could do and then again, and the relief they brought never came close to that which Steve could give him. Speaking of whom, Thor raised an eyebrow at the lack of movement in the apartment, his husband generally met him at the door, or at the very least hollered from a room he couldn't vacate in time to welcome him home properly. 

He couldn't be far away though, his own classes at Brooklyn College ended around 3pm every day and it was long past 7 already. 

Smiling to himself, Thor made his way through the living room, passed the empty kitchen and peeked inside their equally unoccupied bedroom, only to conclude that Steve must be in his study, because of course. 

His smile turned to a grin when he finally spotted his husband, the explanation behind his not showing up at the door appearing clear as day as Thor took in the literal mess of art supplies that surrounded Steve. 

"Hey," he said, soft but loud enough for Steve's unaided ears to pick up. Steve never wore his aids when he worked alone, said it made it that much special, being in the fog as he called it. 

Steve turned around then, a bright smile distending his lips the second their eyes met and  _ damn _ if that wasn't the one thing Thor had craved all day. His lips formed a soft hello that came out as more of a breath than anything before he beckoned Thor closer with a hand smeared with dried clear blue paint. 

"What a sight you make," Thor rumbled as he sat next to Steve on his padded workbench, his hands immediately going to knot in the too large used-to-be white tee-shirt his husband favored when he painted - seeing Steve in clothes that used to be his always made something rather primal stir inside him. 

Steve's smile grew even softer, his eyes crinkling in the corners as he let Thor manhandle him until he had his legs thrown onto Thor's lap and a strong arm pulled him closer to the man's chest. Thor nuzzled Steve's cheek then dropped a kiss on the side of his nose. Only after that, did he draw back enough to look him in the eye. 

"Good day?" 

"Hmm," Steve only nodded, his smile still firmly in place as he pressed their lips together as best he could. Thor sighed into the kiss. 

Being married to this man was like sitting on a cloud, a gentle back and forth that could get as playful or serious as the situation demanded. Steve's relatively cleaner hand came up to frame the side of Thor's face, feather-light on his cheek, the man's thumb tracing the half-circle under his left eye. His eyes were always so expressive, it was hard not to get lost in them, and Thor felt, he wasn't sure it wasn't exactly what he needed in the end.

"Wanna draw you, will you let me?" Steve's voice felt raw to the ear and Thor felt for his husband, for the way giving classes and having to talk constantly during the day took such a toll on him. He reached up to brush a hand through Steve's hair, caressing his throat with the back of his hand before dropping down to kiss his Adam's apple gently.

He was trying to soothe him as much as he was buying time and the look in Steve's eyes when he begrudgingly looked up again was tinted with amusement. He knew, of course he did. 

"Naked?" Thor asked simply, barely suppressing a resigned sigh. They both knew he was the worst at refusing Steve anything. 

Steve's eyes glinted when he nodded, winking at him. 

Thor smiled and moved to take off his shirt. 

“Braids up,” Steve rasped. “Bun.”

Thor complied and arranged himself on Steve's chaise lounge the way he knew would catch the light of the dim lamp the best. The charcoal in his husband’s hand meant the process would be quick - Steve never did detail in his charcoal sketches - and they could move on to naked activities that did not involve art implements. 

Again, the look Steve gave him was easy enough to read - he knew what thoughts were passing through his mind the second they even formed, it was downright scary sometimes. But arousing mostly. Which was all well, as it served to let Thor relax enough not to blush as hard as he thought he might. 

He'd once been proud of his body, proud enough to pose for Steve as many times as he asked or even needed him to, proud enough to never think about it, to never second-guess himself or the clothes he wore. That was before last year year though, before he'd plunged into what he'd started referring to as spiral to rock bottom. He'd gained a good forty pounds in the space of eight months, just as he'd lost all the care he put into looking after himself. 

Steve.

Steve had been his light at the end of a tunnel that seemed to shrink and lengthen in cycles, a beacon shining still, at the very end of it all, waiting for him to be ready. These moments where he posed for Steve had all but disappeared during that time and being able to do it again, being back in that spot that was so familiar yet had grown estranged, was making Thor's hands shaky and his gaze fleeting. His heart beat loudly behind his ear-drums and he was certain his cheeks were flaming red. 

A gentle hum rose just as Thor thought he might be feeling the signs of a panic attack starting and his eyes snapped up, out of the mess that was his mind still, and into the mending blues of his husband's eyes. 

"Nuh uh," Steve said more firmly than he'd sounded all night, "with me." 

Laying on his side as he was, it wasn't easy for Thor to shy away from Steve's gaze and the man knew it.  _ Persistent bastard _ . Thor felt his cheeks flame up at the way Steve smiled and winked at him again before his hand starting flying around the paper he'd propped up on his lap with one of his composition books serving as a makeshift table. 

Seven years of marriage and two of  _ courtship, _ as they often joked, hadn't tampered down the awe that filled Thor when his husband was composing. That's how he'd first seen him, the very first time they'd met - with Thor choking on his own tongue and Steve drawing with a charcoal in his already smeared hands and a pencil behind his ear. Utterly beautiful, immersed in the world he created for himself. 

Again, if it weren't for the familiarity of sinking in Steve's bubble, which he opened just for him, for the easiness with which Steve's warm gaze helped him relax and quiet his storm of a mind, Thor would never have been able to go through the half hour of posing that followed.

He eventually started to fidget anyway. There was no helping the yearning inside him, that groaned and rumbled, both to hide and to expose himself further, to let Steve in even more, even though he couldn't possibly see how. Steve's hands all but jumped from one corner of the page to the other, drawing long lines that swished across the paper, and smaller ones - softer ones too, Thor guessed - that scratched at it instead.

It used to be a moment where they both rested, taking comfort in the quiet, suspended in time and space till all disappeared but what they meant to each other. Thor wanted that back, and he knew Steve did too. He knew how much it had hurt his husband when their sessions gradually became far in-between, until they stopped completely. He knew, or he thought he understood at least, how much strength it had taken for Steve to keep trying, to stay with him, to save his foolish ass until he pushed the door of the clinic open and completed the routine 30-day program. 

Thor looked up at Steve again, almost expecting him to hiss at him like he did when he was painting him and Thor moved too much. Steve only smiled. It was only charcoal. It was only Thor being all in his head and Steve being his true self. With a touch of black matter spread on the side of his cheek. Fucking beautiful.

"I need you to be done soon, love, need to get my hands on you." Thor's voice felt needy, even to his own ears and the grin Steve flashed him only served to confirm it. Smug little thing always loved when Thor got like this.

"Almost," Steve licked his lips and very obviously peered at Thor's cock as it stirred below his stomach. No doubt as to what he was busy drawing now, uh.

Steve bit at his lip, narrowing his eyes at his paper a bit before he clicked his tongue and looked up, his bottom lip still trapped between his teeth. He pushed his composition book until it rested flat on the bench and got up. Purposefully or not, Steve turned around to grab one of the pillows he kept stashed next to his storage unit and offered Thor the first view of his ass all night. 

Thor very nearly drooled in place but he didn't move. Steve hadn't hissed the last time but best not to tempt the devil - or wake the cat. 

A pillow in hand and the most mischievous smile on his lips, Steve walked up to Thor. He let the pillow flop on the floor before he kneeled on top of it.

_ Oh _ .

Steve put his hands on Thor's thigh and encouraged him to sit up, facing him. Only when he got him right where he wanted did Steve look up into Thor's eyes again, licked his lips and said, "Time to relax," just as he pushed Thor's legs open and wedged himself between them. He did not break eye contact, until his lips were wrapped around Thor's cock and they both moaned in unison.

_ Well, fuck. _ That was a good way to go about keeping him out of his head, for sure. As Steve set a rhythm, Thor let himself sink into  _ this  _ moment and  _ this  _ man. Living in the present was his constant challenge as he worked the program, but the fight was always a little easier when Steve reminded him that he was loved. 

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on [Tumblr!](http://hogwartstoalexandria.tumblr.com)


End file.
